Recently life has presented me with a series of events that has led me to a position where I had to accept what is. After a period of prolonged suffering, I realised that I was in resistance to what had happened and the uncomfortable drama that I was in.

Of course, non-acceptance in certain life circumstances is healthy and necessary to get out of bad situations, sometimes we need to say ‘enough is enough!’ and as long as the situation is in our control then we can use this non-acceptance to our advantage. For instance, how can we ever change our lives for the better if we fully accept everything in our reality?

However, we can all benefit from learning to move into a place of acceptance particularly if a situation is out of our control, or we decide that it is ‘okay’ to begin to accept something. We can practice acceptance on a daily basis; instances like the car that cuts you off and creates an angry response within, we can choose to carry this frustration throughout our day or accept and let it go immediately. Acceptance may be required on a much larger scale, for instance, the death of a loved one. This kind of acceptance may be the hardest thing we will ever be faced with but we can be certain that our suffering will decrease once we make the decision to accept what is.

Why should we stop fighting with what is? We live in a reality that is based on the law of attraction, like attracts like. Whatever we resist persists because when we are in resistance to something we are focussed directly upon it. Our thoughts are focussed on the issue at hand and this only attracts similar thoughts, these thoughts spiral round and round creating more suffering. They may even begin to manifest in our physical reality and our situation may not improve but worsen at that!

Sometimes, releasing resistance is not easy and we have to ironically…‘accept’ this! However, if we are able to ‘let go’ then we alter that vibrational frequency within us and we can never underestimate how quickly our situation can improve once we move out of resistance and into acceptance. Many times our suffering is dragged out much longer than needs be because our monkey brain creates negative thought patterns that run around in circles. We can analyze a situation for hours but really we need to ask ourselves, ‘Am I making progress here or am I prolonging my suffering?

In many cases, we must also ask ourselves, ‘What is my mind adding to this?’. Once we lose ourselves in the gravitational pull of negative thinking patterns about a drama, we eventually run out of things to think about, this then leads to overthinking. If we really begin to observe our thoughts then we also see that we are adding more irrational thoughts into the mix as well. We often end up feeling doomed and begin expanding on the situation only finding more reasons to feel bad, all the while creating more and more resistance. These stories in our mind are not necessary and once we become conscious of this, we have the power to step out of this thinking pattern and move into a place of peace…. the present moment.

The moment we realize that we are caught up in an unnecessary negative thinking pattern is a gift. It is a gift because we have become the observer, we have elevated our consciousness to a place where we have woken up to the fact that we are not our thoughts. At this point we are faced with a decision, we can either carry on feeding the pain body with resistant thoughts or we can simply accept the simplicity of the now.

We can say no to spiraling downwards and yes to the moment. The inner chatter suddenly goes quiet and is replaced with total acceptance of what is in that exact moment, everything just is. At this point, we have stopped the train of thought and have stepped out of the past or the future and come straight into the present. You may notice the bird perched on the tree out the window or the warming sensation of the water on your hands whilst you wash the dishes. You may simply notice your breath or the sounds around you, all of which you would have missed if you continued to think unnecessarily.

At this point, you have directed your mental energy towards acceptance rather than resistance and you are more likely to produce a more positive thought. Of course, it may not be long at all until we fall into the same unconscious resistance thoughts but we cannot rewire our entire minds overnight. It doesn’t matter how long you stay in that moment of peace, more importantly, it’s about how frequently we catch ourselves in the resistant thought pattern and choose to accept the now.

Realizing how much our mind adds to a situation and redirecting ourselves back to the moment is an important lesson when moving into a place of acceptance. I do however find that once we are able to move more towards the light we can begin to make sense of the drama that we find ourselves in from an observer perspective. Challenges happen in life and it is a delusion to think that everything in this world is here to satisfy us. If everything went in our favor, how would we grow?

Instead of seeking better and better conditions, we can instead accept the condition of the moment and tell ourselves ‘this too shall pass’. The universal law of rhythm reminds us that life is a pendulum that swings through lows and highs. I find that through the process of self-mastery, we are able to manage these moments differently but they will be there throughout our life and that (in my experience) can be a difficult thing to accept. All we can really do is surrender to the experience and remember that everything is temporary, it may even resolve itself a lot faster when we finally begin to feel that place of acceptance within us.

It is also, of course, important to mention that whatever our drama is, nothing in this universe is random and it is always working in our favor. It may seem impossible to see a positive within a circumstance but the positives will be there. Once we detach from negative thinking patterns, we begin to see the positive factors more easily. Once we do begin to identify these silver linings, we can also begin to move more into a place of acceptance.

So next time you are faced with a circumstance where you identify that acceptance is required, put in the intention to create acceptance within. Try to catch your thoughts and redirect yourself back to the moment, accept the condition for what it is and understand that you have the power to change your thought patterns and see light amongst the dark. Many dramas unfold throughout our lives on a daily basis and the more we integrate acceptance into them, the more we can flow with the current and the less we resist it. Moving in the direction of the flow allows for a smoother ride and we begin to make more space for joy and happiness 🙂

With Gratitude,